In the wake of complaints about slow responses by utilities to the freak October snowstorm, the Massachusetts Senate Thursday unanimously approved a bill that requires utilities to provide customers without power twice-daily estimates of when electricity would be restored. The bill also mandates that utilities pay a new assessment to help finance costs of a state investigation into utility performance during a storm. The bill also seeks to hold utilities accountable by assuring that all state-imposed penalties on utilities for violations of their storm response plans are distributed to affected customers via a credit. The credit would be based upon...